South Africa
Public Protector suffers another legal setback─── 17:22 Fri, 28 Aug 2020
Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, has suffered another legal setback.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed her bid to appeal a high court judgment that set aside her Estina dairy farm report.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and Council for the Promotion of the South African Constitution (Casac) took the report on judicial review on the basis that the report ignored the role of senior politicians in the Free State.
Mkhwebane will now have to pay for the legal costs of both the DA and Casac.
"The DA welcomes this decision by the Constitutional Court. There is no reason why the public protector cannot do a decent investigation and ensure the political architects of this project are investigated and also make a judgment on the role of the beneficiaries," said the DA's Free State leader, Roy Jankielsohn.
Casac’s Lawson Naidoo echoed the DA’s sentiments.
"We do not have any faith in advocate Mkhwebane re-examining this matter. We believe the matter must now be pursued by law enforcement agencies and we know evidence has been led at the Zondo commission on this and now the NPA and the Hawks must bring people to court," he said.
